Local

South Carolina has seen its first pediatric death of the flu season, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
The reported death occurred in the Midlands region, which consists of 12 counties including Lancaster. DHEC would not specify the county where the child died.
“The most information we can release is the region that the death occurred in,” said a DHEC spokesman.

A new multi-story apartment complex is coming to Indian Land.
Lancaster County Council passed a resolution Monday night that moves forward the master plan to build the 300-unit Six Mile Creek Apartments, as well as an adjacent commercial component on 20 acres along the east side of U.S. 521. The property is directly across from the entrance to the BridgeMill subdivision and BridgeMill Drive, which is just north of Transformation Church.

After Wednesday’s Florida school shooting, Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell wrote on Facebook that her daughter feared attending Lancaster High because she saw a student assault a teacher there Feb. 2.
On Thursday, school officials said no such attack had occurred, and the 44th District Democrat from Lancaster removed the post from her Facebook page.
There was a Feb. 2 incident in which a teacher intervened to stop an argument between two students, said LHS Principal Rosalyn Mood, but “at no time was the teacher assaulted or struck by any student.”

Marie Cunningham watched quietly through a cloud of smoke as her childhood home burned Wednesday afternoon, just 30 yards or so from the house where she now lives.
The fire crept closer and closer across the yard, but firefighters extinguished it before it got to her home.
Kershaw, Heath Springs and Rich Hill volunteer fire departments, along with Lancaster County Fire Rescue, responded to the fire at 7768 Molasses Rd., Kershaw, shortly before 2:30 p.m.

Steven Hubbard of Belmont, N.C., is glad to be alive after a motorcycle accident a year ago.
On Feb. 3, he got the chance to thank the man he credits with saving his life – Pleasant Valley Fire Department firefighter Joe Martus.
Hubbard, 26, was on his way to work March 17 when his motorcycle slammed into the side of a turning SUV, leaving him clinging to life in the middle of Carowinds Boulevard in Fort Mill.

Mayor John Howard is in good spirits and his medical condition is improving, according to a website his daughter created to update the community on his progress.
Shelley Robinson wrote that Howard, surrounded by family, is using both a breathing tube and a feeding tube, and he has lost 50 pounds since entering the hospital Jan. 16. But he has been able to maneuver out of bed into a chair and begin physical therapy, she said.

The town of Van Wyck has more than doubled in size since its creation in November through voluntary annexation of its neighbors.
Monday night town council members gave final approval to a bundle of annexations totaling 882 acres.
The council also made substantial moves to preserve the traditional activities of hunting and farming in the community.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office is asking residents to be on guard for possible card skimmers on local gas pumps.
Skimmers are electronic devices that “skim” information from credit and debit card magnetic strips when the cards are swiped.
The sheriff’s office issued the “skimmer alert” on its Facebook page Tuesday afternoon.